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In today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal, Dorothy Rabinowitz documents the shocking case of Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) student-employee Keith John Sampson, found guilty of “racial harassment” simply for reading a book during a break from work.

Calling FIRE a “potent national watchdog group,” Rabinowitz, a member of the WSJ’s Editorial Board, writes:

Ludicrous harassment cases are not rare at our institutions of higher learning. But there was undeniably something special – something pure, and glorious – in the clarity of this picture. A university had brought a case against a student on grounds of a book he had been reading.

Indeed, Rabinowitz’s piece is an excellent summation of precisely why IUPUI’s actions were so appalling, while also serving to remind readers that Sampson’s case is sadly representative of many more. When Rabinowitz declares that “what happened at IUPUI is a pungent reminder of all that’s possible now in the rarefied ideological atmosphere on our college campuses,” we at FIRE know all too well the veracity of her statement.